HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS

THE UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND

MARCH 22, 2002

Alice Haynes Room of the Tyler Haynes Commons

9:00 William E. Cooper: Welcoming Remarks James Rachels: An Overview of the Conference

Session One: What Are Animals Like? 9:30 Marc D. Hauser: “How Our Understanding

of Animal Thought Might Constrain OurThoughts about Animal Welfare”

Colin Allen: “Animal Pain: How SimilarDoes It Need to Be?”

Panel Discussion Marc Hauser, ColinAllen, Craig Kinsley

12:00 Lunch, The Heilman Dining Center

Session Two: Ethics and Animals

1:00 Nancy E. Schauber: ‘Aristotle, Animalsand Responsibility”

Cora Diamond: “Injustice and Animals”

Panel Discussion: Nancy Schauber,Cora Diamond, Peter Vallentyne

Session Three: Animals and the Law The 10th Annual Austin Owen Lecture ofThe University of Richmond School of Law

3:45 Gary L. Francione: “Sentience andPersonhood”

Panel Discussion: Gary Francione,Jonathan Stubbs, Jane Smith

Session Four: Humans and Other Animals

The Robins Pavilion of the Jepson Alumni Center

6:00 Reception, wine and hors d’oeuvres6:30 Dinner

7:30 Gilbert Harman: “Mind and Meat”

Euthanasia(not: youth in Asia)

Fact: Family members perform euthanasia.

Only 3 physicians have ever been brought to trial for euthanasia in the U.S.

Dr. Herman Sander•New Hampshire, 1950

•gave cancer patient 4 injections of air into heart

•aquitted

Dr. Vincent Montemareno•New York, 1974

•gave cancer patient injection of potassium chloride

•aquitted

Dr. Peter Rozier•Florida, 1988

•the strange case of his wife’s suicide

•aquitted

Holland

legalized euthanasia starting in the early 1970s

The Dutch Guidelines

1. Must be performed by a doctor

2. Must be requested by patient while competent

3. Request must be free of doubt, well-documented, and repeated

4. A second, independent physician must be consulted.

5. Determination that no one pressured patient

6. “Unbearable pain” or condition that is otherwise intolerable

7. No available means to improve patient’s condition

How often is euthanasia performed under these guidelines?

• The average physician will have 2 requests every 3 years, 1 of which will be deemed valid.

What do people in Holland think about this?

• 76% of Dutch people approve

American Medical Association (1973)

The intentional termination of the life of one human being by another—mercy killing—is contrary to that for which the medical profession stands and is contrary to the policy of the American Medical Association.

The cessation of the employment of extraordinary means to prolong the life of the body when there is irrefutable evidence that biological death is imminent is the decision of the patient and/or his immediate family.

Two trends in the United States

1. Defining the conditions under which patients may be allowed to die

• Karen Quinlan (1975)

• Clarence Herbert (1981) and Clare Conroy (1982)

• Nancy Cruzan (1990)

Two trends in the United States

2. Physician-Assisted Suicide

• Jack Kevorkian

Two trends in the United States

2. Physician-Assisted Suicide

• Timothy Quill

What to do?

DNR Orders

Increased dosages of pain-killers such as morphine

Advance Directives

• 1991 Patient Self-Determination Act requires health-care providers to offer written information about “living wills”

• About 15% of patients sign a living will

Doctors’ attitudes toward euthanasia

20% of physicians who care for the seriously ill and terminally ill say they have been asked for assistance in speeding the dying process.

Of those, 3% have written prescriptions to assist suicide

and 5% have given lethal injections.

What if it was legal?

Question: How many do you think would assist suicide?

How many do you think would be willing to give lethal injections?

36% say they would assist suicide.

24% say they would give lethal injections.

(Source: New York Times 4/23/98)

Looking to the future . . .

Two-thirds of U.S. medical students support physician-assisted suicide.

The Oregon Experience

Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide in 1997 . . .

In Oregon . . .

Since 1997 the rule in Oregon has been:

2 doctors must agree that patient has less than 6 months to live and is mentally competent to make the decision.

• one in six such requests are being granted

• 20% of requests are from people who are clinically depressed

In Oregon . . .

November 6, 2001:

Attorney General Ashcroft authorizes federal legal action against any doctor who prescribes lethal drugs for terminally ill patients.

“Given everything that the country is going through right now, with the country trying to respond to anthrax, why John Ashcroft picked this moment to inject this divisive issue into the public debate is just beyond me.”—John Kitzhaber, Governor of Oregon